Mastodon Make Metal Cute in Swashbuckling ‘High Road’ Video

Live Action Role Playing kid has 'Game of Thrones' day in 'Once More 'Round the Sun' clip

Mastodon’s “High Road” is tunefully bone-crunching. Yet while the Atlanta quartet told SPIN their June 24 album Once More ‘Round the Sun followed band viewings of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining, plus Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, their video for the song ends up someplace more familiar — and, dare we allow these scare quotes to channel a certain Brian Wilson collaborator and say it, even “adorkable.” Directed by Roboshobo, the Pitchfork-posted clip shows a skinny, bespectacled young man in an epic quest involving Live Action Role Playing (LARP). Mastodon have also shared the heavyweight “Chimes at Midnight,” and you can pre-order the follow-up to 2011’s Hunter now, either using normal money or, c’mon, with Bitcoin, gosh.

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Will Butler has always been an outlier. As Arcade Fire's second-most-famous Butler, he's always made being weird seem just as alluring as fitting in. During the band's live shows, the multi-hyphenate artist (synthesizer, bass, guitar, clarinet, and hell, even the glockenspiel) avoids the spotlight while throwing out enough manic energy — howling in one moment,… More »